The Verger – General Understanding Quiz

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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

The Metaphor
Short Story by Budge Wilson. A seventh-grade girl flourishes under a flamboyant English teacher. She has the same teacher in high school, but unruly students constantly humiliate the poor woman. When the teacher dies in an after-school accident, she copes with her guilt for not reaching out with a metaphor.
The Green Door
Short Story by O. Henry. By day, Rudolf Steiner lives a normal life working in a piano store. By night, he walks the streets looking for adventure. One night, adventure calls upon him to open a green door. What he finds on the other side could change his life forever.
A Great Day
Short Story by Frank Sargeson. Two men go out in a rowboat for an early morning fishing trip. The boat accidentally sinks (or so the police will be told!), and only one of them makes it back. The challenge for readers is to piece together the issues between the men.

A Man Who Had No Eyes
Quick Read by MacKinlay Kantor. A blind peddler tells the wrong person a sob story about how his blindness was caused by poison gas released during a factory explosion. The man points out an error in his story, and how blindness need not be a hindrance to success.
Hearts and Hands
Quick Read by O. Henry. An attractive, refined-looking young woman is returning East by train after spending time in the “Wild West”. She greets a handsome, well-dressed young man she knows, and is surprised to see that he is handcuffed to a roughly dressed, glum-faced companion.
The Cranes
Quick Read by Peter Meinke. An elderly couple suffering debilitating medical issues sit in their car near isolated marshland. As they talk, they observe two aged whooping cranes. These birds, which mate for life, symbolize the couple’s enduring love. A shot rings out, and the cranes soar into the sky
Ruthless
Quick Read by William C. de Mille. A narcissistic businessman is so obsessed with his possessions, including small items such as a bottle of Bourbon, that he would kill to prevent other people from having them. In the end, he receives a taste of his own medicine.

The Mystery of the Missing Cap
Short Story by Manoj Das. When an Indian government minister’s cap goes missing, fears arise about a deep-rooted conspiracy with possible devastating political effects. After an attempted cover-up, the culprit (a monkey) returns with the cap, tries it on, and returns it to the bemused minister.
The Fence
Short Story by Hamsad Rangkuti. A poor family fence their house after an experience with vagrants who took shelter under their eaves during a rainstorm. Things don't go as expected when, thinking the fence had been put up to protect something of value, they later return to rob the house.
In the Region of Ice
Short Story by Joyce Carol Oates. A nun teaching at a Jesuit university is confident in her academic role but feels confused and alienated by the outside world. Tragedy follows when a brilliant but mentally disturbed Jewish graduate student exhibits a need for emotional support beyond her comfort zone.